Jenae Long

Partner: Ashley Piekarsky

Final Research Project

Ethanol Alternatives: Using Fruit to Make Alcohol

Introduction

A. The word renewable is commonly applied to energy resources and technologies

whose common characteristic is that they will not deplete or can naturally be

replenished. Renewable fuels are fuels that are produced from renewable resources.

(oas.org)
B. Biofuels are biomass, or renewable energy sources which can be converted into liquid

fuels, aside from ethanol, biodiesel is also a biofuel. (nrel.gov)

C. Most of the gasoline now sold in the United States contains some ethanol. Most of

ethanol blending into U.S. motor gasoline occurs to meet the requirements of the

1990 Clean Air Act (RFG Fuel) and the Renewable Fuel Standard set in the Energy

Independence and Security Act of 2007. (eia.gov)

D. Some advantages to using ethanol as a fuel or fuel additive include ethanol

production creating jobs in rural areas where employment opportunities are needed,

the carbon dioxide released when ethanol is burned is balanced by the carbon dioxide

captured when the crops are grown to make ethanol, and produced from organic

matter like corn, sugarcane, grasses, agricultural waste, and even garbage. Some

disadvantages to using ethanol as a fuel or fuel additive are that ethanol contains less
 energy than gasoline, so there is lower fuel economy with ethanol than with gasoline.

(afdc.energy.gov)
E. The widespread use of ethanol from corn could create much more greenhouse gas

emissions as the gasoline it would replace because of expected land-use changes.

(USA Today) However, the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents ethanol

producers, said the view of land-use changes "simplisticAssigning the blame for

rainforest deforestation and grassland conversion to agriculture solely on the

renewable fuels industry ignores key factors that play a greater role," said Bob

Dinneen, the association's president. The use of ethanol in fuels will help to fight

against climate change and global warming. Ethanol in fuels can significantly reduce

greenhouse gas emissions in their lifecycle. When compared to gasoline, the use of

high-level ethanol blends, such as E85, generally result in lower emissions levels.

Carbon dioxide is released during exhalation and is used by plants as a necessary

component for photosynthesis, this creates glucose, which is a carbohydrate that must

be consumed or used in order to have energy.

F. Commercial production of fuel ethanol in the U.S. involves breaking down the starch

present in corn into sugar, enzymes carry out the process of breaking down starches to

make sugar, feeding the sugar to yeast (fermentation), and then recovering the main

product, ethanol, and byproducts. In the fermentation step, yeast grown in seed tanks

are added to the corn to begin the process of converting the sugar into ethanol. In

most dry-grind ethanol plants, the fermentation process occurs in batches. The up-

stream processes (grinding, liquefaction, and scarification) and downstream processes

(distillation and recovery) occur continuously (grain is continuously processed

through the equipment). Dry-grind facilities of this design usually have three tanks
 for fermentation where, at any given time, one is filling, one is fermenting, and one is

emptying and resetting for the next batch. Carbon dioxide is also produced during

fermentation. Usually, the carbon dioxide is not recovered and is released from the

fermenters to the atmosphere. (purdue.edu)

G. I believe that corn derived ethanol should not be used as a fuel or fuel additive,

because while it is made out of renewable resources, the creation of ethanol from corn

could dramatically increase greenhouse gas emission, and is less effective than

gasoline is.
H. The cost of ethanol production using corn will be cheaper than producing it with

lemons and tangerines, which are the food products that we have chosen.

Abstract:

For this lab, Ashley and I used tangerines and lemons to make alcohol. Our goal was to find out

if it would be cheaper alternative to make fuel out of these fruits or corn.

Experimental Procedure:

We cut up pieces of tangerines and lemons, and put them in separate flasks. We added water and

glucose, as well as starch. We let the mixtures sit at room temperature and weighed them every

day for two weeks. We looked at the final changes in weight to calculate the amount of ethanol

that was produced from these fruits.

Ethanol Usage
Date Tangerine Lemon Corn Blank
11/10/2016 460.20g 501.66g 551.62g 527.48g
11/11/2016 500.78g 552.04g 527.47g
11/12/2016 460.41g 502.01g 547.73g 527.44g
11/13/2016 460.34g 501.94g 544.30g 527.42g
11/14/2016 460.36g 501.96g 544.32g 527.41g
11/15/2016 460.37g 501.97g 543.66g 527.41g
11/16/2016 500.34g 542.17g 527.41g
11/17/2016 458.73g 498.92g 541.49g 527.39g
11/18/2016 458.69g 498.91g 540.73g 527.39g
 Weight of Flasks (Grams)

600

551.62 552.04 547.73 544.3 544.32 543.66 542.17 541.49 540.73

527.48 527.47 527.44 527.42 527.41 527.41 527.41 527.39 527.39

501.66
500 500.78 502.01 501.94 501.96 501.97 500.34 498.92 498.91

460.2 460.41 460.34 460.36 460.37 458.73 458.69

400

300

200

100

0
42684 42685 42686 42687 42688 42689 42690 42691 42692

Tangerine Lemon Corn Blank

Weight change of blank: 0.09g

Total CO2 produced by tangerine: 460.20g - 458.96g = 1.24 + 0.09 = 1.33g

Total CO2 produced by lemon: 501.66g 498.91g = 2.75g + 0.09g = 2.84g

Total CO2 produced by corn: 551.62g 540.73g = 10.89g + 0.09 = 10.98g

Ethanol produced by tangerine: (44) (1.33) / 46 = 1.27g

Ethanol produced by lemon: (44) (2.84) / 46 = 2.71g

Ethanol produced by corn: (44) (10.98) / 46 = 10.5g

Cost of tangerine: $1.39/453g = y/100 y=0.30

Cost of lemon: $0.79/196g = y/100 y= 0.40

Cost of corn: $0.79/453g = y/100g y= 0.17

Cost of making ethanol from tangerine: 0.30/4.87 = 1.46

Cost of making ethanol from lemon: 0.40/10.41 = 0.04

Cost of making ethanol from corn: 0.17/40.26 = 0.004